I
got home late Tuesday night from the 10th annual Future of
Music Coalition Policy Summit, three days packed with panel
discussions, interviews, networking, and some great music.
I’ll be decompressing for a couple of weeks, but here are
some initial thoughts and a bunch of notable quotes.

As a general matter, there seemed to be a little less certainty
about where things were going, and a little less optimism
that things were going to get better right away for working
musicians. It certainly wasn’t doom and gloom, but more a
recognition that the entire paradigm of being a professional
musician is changing fast in a world where the purchase of
recorded music is now a voluntary act and where there is more
music than ever being created and released.

There were the usual cutting-edge peeks at how folks are making
things work: Rapper Oddisee was dazzling in describing his
use of tracking software to maintain direct relationships
with his fans, as well as the need to regularly turn it all
off in order to go about the business of creating music; Erin
McKeown, who’s been there and back, confidently eschewed the
need for record labels; fan-funding pioneer Jill Sobule and
video genius Damian Kulasch (OK Go) described their joy at
being totally independent and in control of their careers;
self-described super-nerd Jesse von Doom (cashmusic.com) talked
about the struggle of working-class musicians and his company’s
quest to give them the tech tools to make it all work; Canadian
Member of Parliament and former punk rocker Charlie Angus
was awe-inspiring as he talked about the role of the Internet
and music as vehicles for change.

There was plenty of dissonance: Obama’s new cabinet-level
IP enforcer Virginia Espinel awkwardly spouted talking points
about the administration’s IP strategy and said very little
in her 20-minute speech; Facebook and YouTube made disappointing
presentations that were little more than sales pitches designed
for numbskulls; and T-Bone Burnett stunned everybody by proclaiming
the future of music was analog, not digital, and that new
artists should not put their music on the Internet. After
the shock subsided, most folks decided that T-Bone’s talk
was brilliant performance art; in any event, he was such a
lovable curmudgeon that everybody loved him even though nobody
agreed with him.

All in all, there was some consensus: Physical music media
is dead, except as a market segment for collectors, audiophiles,
and people who need bling. The future of the music industry
lies in the cloud, with always-on subscription music services
that wirelessly deliver whatever music you want to wherever
you are (interestingly, even the RIAA representative, who’s
been so smarmy and belligerent in the past, seemed to agree
with this concept). The music-consuming public is roughly
evenly divided between folks who are indiscriminate and just
want music delivered to them and those of us who are active,
fervent listeners and fans. And for this latter group, the
future of music is all about social media.

Here are some money quotes:

Erin McKeown: “Don’t sign with a label. You don’t need it.”

Tom Silverman (Tommy Boy Records): “A lot of people don’t
give a shit about music . . . On-demand is only going to be
for the most active listeners.”

Dina LaPolt (attorney): “Labels don’t even call themselves
labels anymore—they’re ‘multi-rights management conglomerates,’
which is a really bad way of saying you don’t know what the
fuck you’re doing.”

Hank Shockley (Public Enemy/Bomb Squad): “My son’s 11 and
he hates the shit I listen to, and that makes me happy. And
I hate the shit he listens to. And that’s great! Barry Manilow
came on yesterday on my iPod and I’m like, holy shit, this
is good!”

Charlie Angus (Canadian MP): “To all who say the Internet
is killing the music industry, I was there in the analog days,
and it sucked. . . . You can lock down all the content you
want, but that doesn’t mean artists are going to get paid,
and you’ll only create a criminal class of people who just
want to enjoy their culture.”

Chuck D (Public Enemy): “The other day I saw a terrebyte you
could hold in the palm of your hand. And I’m like, just what
the fuck are we talking about now? The question for the next
10 years is how do you become the number-one fan of your number-one
fan? Stalk your fans.”

Jim Griffin (Onehouse): “The music industry has got to become
more like a woman and less like a man. Amazon’s like a woman—it
remembers your name, your phone number, and your likes and
dislikes.”